A funnel cake is formed from a mixture of powdered material including wheat flour, sugar, powdered eggs, powdered milk, leavening, salt and powdered artificial flavor that is combined with water and egg that functions as a binder. The mixture is poured from a funnel into a frying skillet filled with shortening or oil heated to a relatively high temperature, such as 375.degree. F. The liquid batter is poured from the funnel in a web-like pattern into the skillet where it is cooked on each side for approximately 20-30 seconds and then removed and served with any one or several different toppings, such as confectioner's sugar, cinnamon sugar, molasses, ice cream or frozen yogurt.
In the past, funnel cake batter was prepared in a mixing bowl and thence poured into a wide mouthed funnel, i.e. cone shaped device having a downwardly extending spout. While the batter was poured from the mixing bowl into the funnel, a finger of one hand covered the funnel spout to prevent the flow of batter into the heated skillet. After the funnel was filled, the mixing bowl was laid on a counter with the other hand that also held the funnel. Then, the finger on the first hand was moved away from the spout so the mixture flowed by gravity into the skillet as the funnel was moved back and forth over the skillet to create the web-like pattern. To cut off the flow of mixture through the spout, after the pattern was formed, the finger of the first hand covered the bottom of the spout. Then, the spout was moved over the mixing bowl and excess mixture was poured into the mixing bowl, either through the spout or the open end of the funnel.
It is apparent that this prior art technique requires considerable manual dexterity on the part of the user. In addition, the constant use of a finger over the funnel spout is unsanitary, causing contamination of the product, which would be unacceptable for both commercial and household purposes. Further, there is considerable dripping of product from the spout of the funnel when it is laid down after the unused contents thereof have been returned to the mixing bowl. The dripping is messy and wasteful, and requires cleaning of the counter, to comply with commercially accepted sanitary standards.
The first attempt to obviate the use of separate mixing bowls and funnels involved a hand-held, sheet metal, galvanized oil can with a funnel spout and welded lead pieces. However, there were still problems of measuring the correct amount of batter, mixing, storing and using the finger to prevent batter from dripping from the spout. Various hand-held funnels operated with a controlled manual flow cutoff were also tried. While these manually controlled flow cutoff funnels resulted in slight improvement, they did not eliminate a problem of splattering hot oil, which may possibly burn a person pouring batter into the skillet. Further, it was still necessary to use a finger to prevent the flow of dripping batter.
In all of these prior art funnel devices, sheet metal has been found to be unacceptable material because it rusts, dents, bends, and riddles with sharp edges, so that handling food is hazardous. In addition, the welded lead pieces are hazardous to food handling, and the possibility of metal contamination occurs because the zinc, galvanized coating on the sheet metal eventually wears away with use and may become part of the batter.
A further difficulty with the prior art funnels is that they are difficult to clean because the batter clings and sticks to the inside spout of the metal surfaces. The spout is generally inaccessible to clean in the one-piece, oil can type units, as well as in the other manually controlled funnels. If the funnel is not adequately cleaned, the possibility of food contamination is extensive and unacceptable from both a commercial and household standpoint.